Metro Boomin has won a verdict clearing him of wrongdoing in a civil lawsuit from a woman who claimed that he sexually assaulted and impregnated her in 2016.
After a three-day trial and a brief deliberation, Rolling Stone reports that jurors on Thursday (Sept. 25) rejected allegations from Vanessa LeMaistre, who claimed that the star producer (Leland T. Wayne) raped her after she ingested Xanax and alcohol at his studio during a recording session.
Earlier in the week, Metro had testified in the courtroom that there was “no way in the world” he had assaulted LeMaistre. He claimed their encounter had been consensual — and that she had concocted her “shakedown” accusations while hallucinating on ayahuasca.
“This whole lawsuit was born out of a drug den in Peru. In the jungle,” Metro’s defense lawyer, Justin H. Sanders, said in his closing argument. “This case is preposterous.”
Following the verdict, Metro said he was “grateful and thankful to God that I can finally put all of this nonsense behind me” and move on from the “disgusting and heinous” allegations, but that the “trauma my family and I have endured during this dark period can never be forgiven.”
“Today I took a victory in court but in reality there is a long list of losses I stacked up in this year long process of clearing my name and reputation,” he said. “I’m disappointed in not only the plaintiff but the janky lawyers who made the conscious decision to take on this suit, even though it was evident long ago that these claims had no legs or merit.”
In his own statement, LeMaistre’s lawyer, Michael J. Willemin, said: “Though the legal system is often stacked against survivors, our client showed unwavering fortitude throughout this trial. We are disappointed in the outcome but are proud to represent Ms. LeMaistre and believe that the verdict will ultimately be overturned on appeal.”
LeMaistre sued Metro in 2024, claiming she met the producer in Las Vegas in the spring of 2016. LeMaistre says she confided in Metro about the recent death of her 9-month-old son, and that they “bonded over the ability of music to help people in their darkest moments.”
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But LeMaistre’s belief about her bond with Metro allegedly “shattered” the following September, when the producer invited her to watch him work in his California recording studio. LeMaistre said she had a shot of alcohol and half a tablet of Xanax, then blacked out, waking up on a bed in a different location, “completely unable to move or make a sound” while Metro raped her.
LeMaistre alleged she became pregnant as a result of the assault and had an abortion in November 2016. Notably, the lawsuit claimed the attack had been referenced in Metro’s 2017 song “Rap Saved Me” with Offset, 21 Savage and Quavo.
But as reported by Rolling Stone, Metro’s lawyers centered their defense on claims that she had decided to air those accusations during a 2024 ceremony in Peru during which she took the psychoactive drug ayahuasca. At one point, jurors saw a handwritten note penned during the trip in which LeMaistre wrote that she would “blow the whistle on Metro Boomin”; at another, she said a demand for more than $3 million in damages had been “given to me” during the ayahuasca ceremony.
